History of Music from 1750
Website: www.utpb.edu/music/index.html
Prerequisites: none
Location of class: ONLINE
Time: ONLINE
Professor: Dr. Michael Jordan, 685-4647
E-mail: mjordan@midland.edu
Office Hours: ON LINE 10 AM-12PM MWF
Course Description and Outline: This is a music history course for music students. Students will be expected to identify musical examples, employing aspects of timbre, melody, harmony, rhythm and form in order to place them in their proper historical context. Students will also understand the general social and historical context that dominated the lives of musicians and influenced the music they created. Students will receive a detailed calendar outlining the course readings and scheduled content modules for each style period. Examinations will be given over each major section of the course. The detailed outline will also contain due dates for the analysis paper, as well as the dates for the comprehensive final examination.
Text and Other Reading Materials and Supplies:
The text for the course will be A Concise History of Western Music, Third Edition; Barbara Russano Hanning, W. W. Norton and Co, 2006, Third Edition. Study Guide and CD set are included with the textbook. Additional books from the UTPB library will also be a required part of the course.
Course Objectives:
1.Students will develop a basic understanding of musical materials: i.e. rhythm, harmony, pitch, etc.
2.READING: The ability to analyze and interpret books, articles and documents specific to musical styles and/or trends. Students will understand and outline musical historical style periods, and explain the basic differences inherent within each period, placing important musical and historical personalities accurately in their respective historical and philosophical contexts.
3.Students will become familiar with the more important musical compositions of each style period, the compositions as sections of them are played.
4.Students will be able to accurately recognize and discuss representative examples of music from different genres and style periods. This objective applies regardless of whether the student has heard an example before. This means that you must not just learn term definitions by rote you must be able to apply them.
5.LISTENING: The ability to analyze and interpret music as it is played.
6.Students will become familiar with a variety of cultural perspectives within the framework of Western musical styles. Even though this course deals primarily with Western Music, you will be dealing with a tremendous variety of languages and cultures throughout the semester. Many of the terms we regularly use are in Latin, Greek, Italian, French, and German. I imagine that you will be spending a lot of time on the terminology.
7.WRITING: The ability to produce clear, correct and coherent prose adapted to exams and/or research papers. Prose must make sense and have something to say. Students need to be familiar with the writing process including how to discover a topic and how to develop and organize it, as well as how to phrase topics effectively for their audience. These abilities can be acquired only through practice and reflection.
8.CRITICAL THINKING: The ability to apply both qualitative and quantitative skills analytically and creatively to musical subject matter in order to evaluate arguments and construct alternative strategies. Problem solving used to address an identified task.
Course Requirements, Methods and Procedures:
1.Lecture/Discussion during class hours
2.Listening: Students required to listen to compositions on the textbook CD. The content module texts on the website include streaming audio links that help explain the musical examples from the textbook. There is also streaming audio available on the textbook website. Please arrange a time just for listening. Listening in the car is not helpful! Listening to music while doing other activities like preparing meals or talking to friends will not help you.
3.Reading: Students are required to read sections of the textbook for lectures as per the course outline.
4.Examination: Essay examinations will be given at the end of each course segment. Students will be required to discuss listening examples from each of the style periods covered in the learning modules. These listening examples will include selections discussed in class as well as selections that the student has not heard before. Students will be required to identify each selection by historical period, composer and genre, as well as explain the reasons that they have placed the respective selection in the category identified.
5.It is important that students log on to the website and keep up with class readings, exams and assignments. Students who do not take the examinations when they are posted will receive a zero for the exams that they miss. They may be obliged to withdraw from the course as a result. Please make sure that you know the drop deadling for the semester so that you can withdraw in order to avoid a failing grade for the course.
6.Students will be required to submit an analysis paper in order to pass the course. Guidelines for the paper are posted in the assignments section of the course website.
7.Part of the grade will be based on student participation in the discussion board, so remember to post your questions and comments on the discussion board in order to receive the full credit for your discussion board participation.
8.The examinations will be averaged together with the analysis paper in order to determine your final grade for the course. Grades will be weighted as follows:
Examinations: 60%
Analysis Paper: 30%
Discussion Board: 10%
Average of 90% or above: A
Average of 80-89%: B
Average of 70-79%: C
Average of 60-69%: D
Average of 59% or below: F
Course Policies:
1.EXTRA CREDIT: Five points will be added to your final average for attending concerts offered during the spring term. Credit will NOT be awarded for attending free school concerts. You must attend a Masterworks concert offered by MOSC, an Allegro concert, or a Midland Opera Theater event. In order to receive your five extra points, you must submit a 300 word report detailing the concert repertoire and some background about the pieces that were performed. Extra credit will NOT be rewarded for concert attendance at any events other than these.
2.There are four course modules that must be completed by students over the course of the semester. Students will take an examination over each course module. Examinations will be posted at the times detailed on the course schedule. Please log on and take the examinations when they are due. You will receive a 0% score for any examinations you fail to take. Zeros can ruin an otherwise acceptable grade average!
3.The average of the four examinations will count as 60% of the overall grade for the course. The assigned analysis paper will be 30% of the grade. Guidelines for the paper are posted on the course website. Students must also post a minimum of three postings on the discussion board in order to receive the 10% discussion board credit. Plagiarism: Plagiarism will not be tolerated. Students who submit papers that are copied from other sources without acknowledgement will receive a score of zero for the assignment. Plagiarized papers CANNOT be revised for a higher grade. Materials used for research must be cited if they are quoted verbatim. Use quotation marks and MLA in order to cite the references you used in preparing your paper. Also include a bibliography at the end of the paper as well.
Instructor Information:
1.Address:
Dr. Michael D. Jordan, Professor
Music Theory and Studio Voice
Midland, College
3600 N. Garfield
Midland, TX79705
2.Phone: 432 685-4647, Cell: 432 425-9836
3.E-mail: mjordan@midland.edu
4901 E. University . Odessa, Texas 79762 . (432) 552-2020